Gauguin

Art Historical Context

Georges Daniel de Monfre's *Gauguin* (1924) is a striking woodcut portrait honoring the Post-Impressionist master Paul Gauguin, over two decades after Gauguin's in 1903. Monfreid, a close friend, painter, and devoted advocate for Gauguin's legacy, captured the artist's intense gaze and rugged features with bold simplicity. This print reflects the enduring admiration for Gauguin revolutionary color theories and exotic Tahitian inspirations, which influenced modern art movements like Fauvism and Expressionism. Printed in black ink on delicate Japan paper—a fine, thin Asian paper prized for its absorbency and texture—the woodcut exemplifies relief printing techniques. Monfreid carved the image into wood blocks, inking the raised surfaces to produce crisp, high-contrast lines that evoke Gauguin's own graphic experiments in woodcuts and linocuts. Measuring just 17.3 x 12.2 cm, its intimate scale invites close contemplation, highlighting the tactile quality of traditional printmaking during the interwar period. Housed in the National Gallery of Art's Rosenwald Collection, this work underscores the revival of print media as an accessible art form in the 1920s, bridging Symbolist roots with modernist boldness. Visitors will appreciate how Monfreid's tribute immortalizes Gauguin's mythic persona, blending personal devotion with artistic homage.